Brian Naylor

In this role, he covers politics and federal agencies, including transportation and homeland security.

With more than 30 years of experience at NPR, Naylor has served as National Desk correspondent, White House correspondent, congressional correspondent, foreign correspondent and newscaster during All Things Considered. He has filled in as host on many NPR programs, including Morning Edition, Weekend Edition and Talk of the Nation.

During his NPR career, Naylor has covered many of the major world events, including political conventions, the Olympics, the White House, Congress and the mid-Atlantic region. Naylor reported from Tokyo in the aftermath of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, from New Orleans following the BP oil spill, and from West Virginia after the deadly explosion at the Upper Big Branch coal mine.

While covering the U.S. Congress in the mid-1990s, Naylor's reporting contributed to NPR's 1996 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Journalism award for political reporting.

Before coming to NPR in 1982, Naylor worked at NPR Member Station WOSU in Columbus, Ohio, and at a commercial radio station in Maine.

Chief of staff John Kelly on Friday called for an overhaul of White House security clearance standards, following criticism that a top aide was allowed to remain on the job despite allegations of domestic abuse.

The new rules come in the wake of Rob Porters' departure last week after reports that he had abused his two former wives. Porter was working as the White House staff secretary on an interim security clearance.

President Trump's personal attorney says he paid $130,000 to an adult film star who said she had an affair with Trump.

In a statement first provided to TheNew York Times, Michael Cohen says that "in a private transaction in 2016, I used my own personal funds to facilitate a payment of $130,000 to Ms. Stephanie Clifford. Neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction with Ms. Clifford, and neither reimbursed me for the payment, either directly or indirectly."

The resignation of White House staff secretary Rob Porter after media reports of domestic abuse allegations against him — allegations he has denied — raises some key questions about government security clearances, and how they're obtained.

More than 3 million government employees hold some type of security clearance, most in the Department of Defense. That's more than half of all federal jobs. Another 1.2 million government contractors held clearances, as of 2015.

President Trump praised God and country Thursday, calling the U.S. "a nation of believers" and saying faith is central to "American life and to liberty."

The president spoke at the National Prayer Breakfast, an annual gathering of faith and political leaders, in Washington, D.C. Sticking largely to his script, Trump said he came to "praise God, for how truly blessed we are to be American."

Trump said the nation's founders "invoked our creator four times in the Declaration of Independence" and that "our currency declares 'In God We Trust.' "

The past year has been a tough one for the federal workforce. There was a hiring freeze at many agencies. For three days earlier this month, there was a government shutdown, leaving many workers to wonder when their next paycheck would arrive.

Now, as President Trump prepares his first State of the Union address, one issue he is expected to take up, if not there then in his soon-to-follow proposed budget for fiscal year 2019, is reorganizing the federal bureaucracy.